.Part 1 Architecture HP SAN Design Reference Guide 785351-001

2 SAN fabric topologies
This chapter discusses HP standard SAN fabric topologies. It describes the following topics:
• “Fabric topologies” (page 23)
• “Single-switch fabric” (page 24)
• “Cascaded fabric” (page 25)
• “Meshed fabric” (page 26)
• “Ring fabric” (page 27)
• “Core-edge fabric” (page 29)
• “Topology data access” (page 32)
• “Topology maximums” (page 33)
• “Routed fabric topologies” (page 34)
• “FCoE fabric topologies” (page 37)
• “Data availability” (page 38)
• “Topology migration” (page 41)
Fabric topologies
A SAN fabric topology defines the arrangement of Fibre Channel switches in a fabric. This section
describes the HP-supported SAN fabric topologies.
There are three approaches to designing a SAN. You can implement:
• An HP standard SAN fabric topology design
• A subset or variation of an HP standard SAN fabric topology design
• A custom SAN fabric topology design
Regardless of which approach you use, the SAN design must adhere to the SAN design rules
described in the following chapters:
• “B-series switches and fabric rules” (page 91)
• “C-series switches and fabric rules” (page 123)
• “H-series switches and fabric rules” (page 140)
• “SAN fabric connectivity and switch interoperability rules” (page 152)
• “Heterogeneous server rules” (page 165)
• “MSA storage system rules” (page 211)
• “P6000/EVA storage system rules” (page 221)
• “P9000/XP storage system rules” (page 235)
• “SVSP storage system rules” (page 242)
• “3PAR StoreServ storage rules” (page 249)
Fabric topologies 23